Sadam Ali’s comeback foe named for August 31 bout

“My whole life has been about boxing since I was eight years old,” Ali said. “I achieved becoming an Olympian and world champion as a professional. It was time for me to take a break. As time went by, the hunger grew more and more; I really missed being in the ring.”

Ali originally scheduled his comeback fight for February 23 against Victoriano Santillan in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York. The show was postponed when Ali suffered an injury in training camp and relocated to Detroit.

“I’ve always noticed that I have a big fan base in Michigan, but I’ve never had the opportunity to entertain fans there until now,” Ali said.

Ali competed in the 2008 Olympics at lightweight, losing in his only bout. He turned pro in 2009 and lost in his first title shot in 2016, stopped in the ninth round by Jessie Vargas in a bout for the vacant WBO welterweight belt.

But four fights later, Ali surprisingly outpointed Miguel Cotto for the WBO title at 154lbs, sending Cotto off into retirement. Ali lost to Munguia in his first defense.

Cotto isn’t the only great fighter that Ali has defeated. He also has an amateur win over one of the best of this era, Terence Crawford.

“My highlight definitely has to be beating Crawford to become a US Olympian,” Ali said. “I knew the opportunity would also come for me to become world champion.”

Wilson, Ali’s comeback foe, is a 31-year-old from West Virginia with a record of 14-5 (9 KOs). He is coming off an eight-round decision loss in April to the 5-1     Ivan Dancha. 

After August 31, Ali isn’t certain what the next step of his comeback would entail.

“God willing, if everything goes well and the right opportunity comes along, I am right back in, but there’s no one in particular I have my sights set on,” he said. “I have been there before, and I never backed down from anyone.”

Also on this show, former lightweight titleholder Richard Commey will face an opponent still to be determined. Commey, 30-5-1 (27 KOs), last fought in March 2023, when he was stopped by Jose Ramirez in the 11th round of a junior welterweight elimination bout. 

He is 1-3-1 in his last five outings, which also included defeats against Teofimo Lopez (who took Commey’s IBF belt by second-round TKO in 2019), a win over Jackson Marinez,  a wide decision loss to Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2021, and a draw with Jose Pedraza in 2022.

Other undercard bouts include:

Junior middleweight Husam Al Mashhadi, 12-1 (10 KOs), will face Abraham Afful, 13-6-1 (13 KOs). 

And bantamweight Khalid Twaiti, 14-1 (5 KOs), will face an opponent still to be determined.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.